
REV. DE. STORRS'S SERMON 



befoui: THE 



AMERICAN BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS FOR 
FOREIGN MISSIONS, 



PREACHED AT OSWEGO, NEW YORK, SEPT. 10, 1850. 



ALWAYS ABOUNDING IN THE WORK OF THE LORD. 



A 

SERMON, 

PREACHED AT OSWEGO, NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 10, 1850, 
BEFORE THE 

AMERICAN BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS 

FOB 

FOREIGN MISSIONS, 

AT THEIR 

FORTY-FIRST ANNUAL MEETING. 

BY RICHARD S. STORRS, D. D., 

BRAINTREE. MS. 



BOSTON: 
PRESS OF T. R. MARVIN, 24 CONGRESS STREET. 
1 85 0. 



SERMON. 



No apology, I am sure, will be required, for the 
selection of the words which closed so appropriately 
and eloquently, the able discourse delivered at your 
last annual convocation, as the theme of our present 
meditations ; they are recorded in 

1 CORINTHIANS, xv. 5S. 

THEREFORE, MY BELOVED BRETHREN*, BE YE STEADFAST, U ""MOVEABLE, ALWAYS 
ABOITNDENG IN* THE WORK OF THE LORD, FORASMUCH AS YE KNOW THAT 
YOUR LABOR IS NOT IN* VAIN* IN* THE LORD. 

The eye of the Apostle is directed to the future 
resurrection of the righteous. Rapt in wonder and 
joy in contemplation of the grace that gives victory 
to the believer over death and hell, and filled with 
grateful emotion in view of so signal a triumph, he 
is unable to repress the awakened sensibilities, 
which burst forth in this strong language, at once 
admonishing to faithfulness in duty, and supplying 
encouragement the most animating and ample. 

We indeed look not onward, at this hour, to the 
final resurrection of the dead, at the sounding of 
the archangel's trump, so much as to the interven- 



4 



ing moral resurrection of the nations to new life 
and activity in the service of God — a resurrection 
to be effected by humbler instrumentalities, and 
with far less observation, than those by which the 
great designs of mercy and of wrath toward this 
fallen race shall be consummated ; both of these 
resurrections, however, are inseparably connected in 
the mighty chain of divine purposes circling earth 
and heaven, binding God to man and man to God, 
for the brightest display of the Ineffable Glory. 
We take no part in the recovery of the world to 
Christ, that bears not directly on the manifestations 
of eternal wisdom, holiness and love, in " that great 
day for which all other days are made ; " not a sav- 
age of our Western wilds, nor a Hottentot or Hin- 
doo of distant lands, shall be brought to the knowl- 
edge of the truth, without adding to the joyfulness 
of the hour when death shall be swallowed up in 
victory. 

The words before us suggest three distinct but 
closely connected topics, deserving our considera- 
tion. 

I. The duty of the church to be " always abound- 
ing in the work of the Lord." 

II. The difficulties to be met, and only overcome 
by perseverance in this work — " be ye steadfast and 
unmoveable." 

III. The promised reward — "your labor shall not 
be in vain in the Lord." 

I. The duty of the church — to be " always 
abounding in the work of the Lord." 



5 



1. The nature of the work demands it. 

To reconcile man to God, through the enlighten- 
ment of his mind and the renovation of his heart, 
though more than can be accomplished " by might 
or by power," is the work committed to human 
hands, moved and guided by the Holy One. No 
audible voice from heaven calls forth the man dead 
in trespasses and sins to spiritual life and action, 
nor does the lone arm of Omnipotence raise him 
from the depths into which he has fallen, and " put 
him among the children ; " but the voice of his 
fellow man arrests and instructs him, and the hand 
of his brother gently leads him from the precipice 
overhanging the world of death, and conducts him 
to Jesus' feet. Feeble instrumentality this, it is 
admitted ; — but, ordained of heaven, it is no less 
necessary to the soul's salvation, than the energy of 
the wonder-working Spirit himself. 

And, the field of labor is broad. Man's enmity 
to God is at once entire and universal. Its develop- 
ments indeed, are affected by circumstances of time, 
place, education and social condition ; but whether 
it assume the robes of an angel of light, or the 
blood-dyed garments of the veteran warrior — 
whether it slay indiscriminately the children of 
Bethlehem, or repeat prayers on the house-top — 
whether it offer superstitious devotions at Jerusalem 
or Mecca, at Rome or Benares, or exonerate itself 
of every religious obligation, its vital character is 
still the same ; it is determined and proud rebel- 
lion against the authority of the Most High — 
claiming that 



6 



" All is not lost ; the unconquerable will, 
And study of revenge, immortal hate, 
And courage never to submit or yield 
And what is else not to be overcome ; 
That glory, never shall his wrath or might 
Extort from me." 

The world is cursed by Satan's rule, and lieth in 
wickedness. As is the master, so is the servant. 
The whole creation groaneth, and travaileth in pain 
together until now ; nor will it be delivered from 
the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty 
of the sons of God, till the church shall more and 
more abound in the work of the Lord. 

2. God's purpose in the establishment of the 
church evinces it. 

The church has a name and constitution, ordi- 
nances and modes of worship, that determine by 
their simplicity and variety the great end of her 
existence. God has formed her to reflect his image, 
vindicate his honor, extend his authority, and en- 
force his claims ; and for this, he has clothed her 
with his own beauty, breathing into her a measure of 
his Spirit, and requiring of her an homage involving 
the cheerful sacrifice of all earthly good on the 
altars of truth and holiness. She is the pillar and 
ground of the truth, the salt of the earth, the light 
of the world. She has one master, even Christ ; 
and to her are given the keys of the kingdom of 
heaven, that the souls of men may be loosed or 
bound, as her faithfulness or negligence shall 
decide. 

Not for the edification and comfort of members 
gathered into her bosom without efforts of her own, 



7 



and still less, for the accumulation of worthless honors 
and emoluments upon herself, has she been called 
into being ; but that she may proclaim in every land 
Jehovah's name, and summon all nations to the obedi- 
ence of the faith. By opening the eyes of the blind, 
unstopping the ears of the deaf, and causing the 
tongue of the dumb to sing, she is to become " an 
eternal excellency, a joy of many generations." 

Such was God's beneficent purpose in her estab- 
lishment ; — not that she might conceal the lively 
Oracles, and substitute for them the traditions of 
men ; not that she might fill the world with lying 
wonders, plant the gold-garnished cross upon the 
hill-top and surmount it with a crown of thorns ; 
not that she might parade her armed battalions and 
pour forth vollies of thunder in honor of an idol ; 
not that she might invent new terms of salvation, 
and grant indulgences and remission of sins for the 
vain repetition of prayers and the payment of 
money ; nor that she might decree arbitrary modes 
of worship, and compel men by menace and torture, 
or allure them by flattery and falsehood to adopt a 
humanly contrived system of faith and practice, vio- 
lative both of reason and revelation — but, that she 
might maintain " the law and testimony " in their 
integrity, explain and enforce their teachings, exem- 
plify their spirit and diffuse their life-giving influ- 
ence, instructing all men in the first principles and 
subordinate details of duty, by the energetic minis- 
tration of God's word and ordinances, the mainte- 
nance of seminaries of science, the operations of 
the press, and whatever other instrumentalities bear 



8 



on them the imprimatur of Heaven. For these 
ends, and for these alone, was the church established 
by him who made the world and marshaled the 
hosts of heaven ; and for the same ends she is still 
sustained in her conflict with the powers of earth 
and hell. 

3. The commission given by Christ to the first 
disciples contemplates it. 

" Go ye therefore and teach all nations — all 
things whatsoever I have commanded you ; and lo ! 
I am with you always, even to the end of the 
world." Paramount is the authority that issues this 
command, plain the duty it enjoins, and full of 
grace the promise that attends it. " Beautiful are 
the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, 
and bring glad tidings of good things ; " and while 
they bear witness to the truth — " a mouth and wis- 
dom are given them, which all their adversaries are 
neither able to gainsay nor to resist." 

But the work of the Apostles and their successors 
in office, turning men from darkness to light and 
from the power of Satan unto God, belongs equally 
to the entire body of the church in all generations. 
Christ's ministers are but the heaven-appointed 
leaders of 

" The sacramental host of God's elect " — 

ordained heralds of the great salvation embodied in 
the visible church ; nor are the labors and self- 
denials involved in the execution of this high com- 
mission more exclusively theirs, than are the honor 
and happiness of the promised results. The com- 



9 



mission is thrown into the hands and bound upon 
the conscience of every Christian, clothing him with 
authority, either personally or by substitution, to 
evangelize all nations, instructing him to be fervent 
in spirit, serving the Lord, making his light to shine 
widely as the world, that through his works of faith 
and labors of love, he may glorify his Father in 
heaven, and save his fellow men from everlasting 
death. The humblest believer, faithful to this high 
trust, will share the glories, as he shares the faith 
and sacrifices of the most eminent among God's 
servants. 

4. The spirit of piety prompts it. 

Religion in its nature is communicative. " It is 
more blessed to give than to receive." The peace 
and joy brought home to the individual, are only 
perfected when imparted to others. The new born 
child of grace cannot rest, till the full tide of his 
sanctified emotions has broken over every embank- 
ment and flowed freely into other bosoms ; awaked 
to the long neglected glories of the spiritual world, 
he pants to make them known to as many as are 
still enveloped in darkness ; and the first aspiration 
of his renovated spirit is, " Lord ! what wilt thou 
have me to do ? " As the great revival of 1740 
gave birth to the concert of prayer for the conver- 
sion of the world, so that concert of prayer called 
up the question whether the active labors of the 
church could not be successfully combined for the 
same end ; and the earnest consideration of this 
question led to the conviction, that duty demanded 
immediate and united effort ; and this conviction 
a 



10 



resulted in the resolution on which we act to-day — 
to " publish salvation to the ends of the earth, and 
say unto Zion, Thy God reigneth." 

Whoever has first learned " the exceeding sinful- 
ness of sin," and the bitterness of its fruits, and 
then has participated in the spirit that would have 
all men to be saved, is constrained by every princi- 
ple of his regenerated nature, to abound more and 
more in labors of love for those destined to an im- 
mortality of weal or wo, and now lying under con- 
demnation. A Christian, indifferent to the actual 
or prospective miseries of his fellow men, is a sole- 
cism in terms. The eye that has been turned from 
earth to heaven, the heart that has leaped for joy at 
emancipation from sin's thraldom, and has bathed 
itself in the light of heaven, can never regard in- 
differently the darkness and wo that hang over un- 
regenerated man in his various earthly conditions, 
but loving his neighbor as himself, and knowing the 
grace of the Lord Jesus, that " though he was rich 
yet for our sakes he became poor, that we, through 
his poverty might be rich," he will be ready to every 
sacrifice for the salvation of his " neighbor," though 
dwelling at the ends of the earth. " Lord, save ! " 
is the spontaneous cry of the renovated spirit, op- 
pressed like Paul with great heaviness, in view 
of the world's woes ; and then is the injunction 
cheerfully obeyed, " Whatsoever thy hand findeth to 
do, do it with thy might." 

5. The providence of God encourages it. 

Faith recognizes the movements of the wonder- 
working God in the progressive discoveries of the 



11 



past three hundred years, throwing open to the eye 
new continents, and isles of the sea before unknown, 
all thickly tenanted by undying man. The bold 
daring of Columbus and the Duke of Visco, the 
intrepidity of Vasco de Gama, Cooke, Drake, and 
others, who first made Christendom acquainted 
with America, and Africa, and the Eastern Archi- 
pelago, sprang from the counsels of the only wise 
God, as directly as the kingly spirit of the son of 
Kish, and the dauntless courage of Chaldea's mon- 
arch. Through long ages had darkness covered the 
earth, streaked only here and there with a ray of 
lurid light, struck up by the collision of religious 
fanaticism with the spirit of conquest and blood- 
thirstiness ; and then, science had well nigh closed 
its eyes on the phenomena of nature ; philosophy 
dozily dreamed within the precints of the monastery, 
of the arcana to be brought to light from the fields 
of intellect ; and contentedly followed the beaten 
track of by-gone ages ; and zeal for God and hu- 
man improvement slept quietly in the bosom of 
superstition — till suddenly, fire fell from heaven upon 
the castellated folly and ignorance of man's heart, 
and the winds of heaven drove him forth 

" From the castle height of indolence, and its false luxury," 

into the broad area of a then unknown world, in 
pursuit of wealth and fame, under the banners of 
him, who opposeth and exalteth himself above all 
that is called God, but still under the invisible guid- 
ance of another, " in whom are hid all the treasures 
of wisdom and knowledge." 



12 



And the same Providence now opens the ears of 
men, in nearly every quarter of the globe, to the 
message of salvation — whether through the extend- 
ing sway of Christian governments, or the widely 
diffused conviction of the intellectual and moral su- 
periority of evangelized nations, or the influence of 
prospective commercial gain, or the manifest useless- 
ness, and foreshadowed extinguishment of Pagan 
and Mohammedan religious systems, it matters not ; 
the fact is undeniable, and replete with encourage- 
ment. 

To the same Providence must be ascribed the 
spirit now abroad, which aims at the translation of 
the Scriptures into all languages, and their universal 
distribution ; the raising up of preachers of right- 
eousness from among the heathen, and that educa- 
tion of the masses of idolaters, which shakes their 
confidence in the false religions of their fathers, and 
constrains them to seek a better way for themselves 
and their little ones. Gratefully should we recog- 
nize the hand that has brought into action these 
fitting instrumentalities for effecting the purposes of 
God's mercy toward the Pagan world. 

Nor can we overlook the same Providence that to 
some extent has already supplanted idolatry, — that 
has thrown to the winds wild and inveterate delu- 
sions, — that has annihilated cruel and disgusting cus- 
toms of long continuance, — that has here and there 
enlightened the dark mind, subdued the stubborn 
will, and caused the pouring of the heart's best treas- 
ures into the bosom of Infinite Love. The Greek and 
the Armenian, the Papist and the Jew, the shivering 



13 



Greenlander, and the glowing West-Indian, the red 
man of America, and the Sandwich Islander, the 
servile Karen, and the fierce Malay, the ebon child 
of Africa, and the boasting denizen of the " Celes- 
tial Empire," have alike, in numbers few indeed, 
found their way to the feet of Jesus, giving us fair 
promise of the triumphs of grace in future but not 
far distant years. Hitherto, great things have been 
rarely expected, and still more rarely attempted ; 
but, even now, the evidence is clear, that before 
men call, God answers, and while they are yet 
speaking he hears, and is ready to follow with the 
demonstration of his Spirit, each hallowed effort 
that shall be put forth for the world's conversion. I 
might add 

6. The promises of God assure it. 

These promises, however, will claim our attention 
more particularly hereafter, when we consider the 
reward of " abounding in the work of the Lord." 

I proceed, therefore, to the second topic suggested 
by the text for our consideration, viz. 

II. The difficulties to be met, and only overcome 
by perseverance in this work. 

That formidable difficulties lie in the way of duty 
is clearly implied in the injunction, " be steadfast, 
and unmoveable." This language is too simple to 
need exposition, and nothing can add to its force- 
fulness. Yet its purport will best be understood, 
and its earnestness justified to the mind that sympa- 
thizes with God, if we particularize some of these 
difficulties. 



14 



1. An obvious difficulty arises from the confessed 
obliquities of believers themselves. 

History and experience prove an unceasing con- 
flict between the law of the mind, and the law in 
the members. Sin stamps its gloomy features in 
various depth of shade on the Christian, impairing 
his strength, diminishing his courage, creating dis- 
trust of God, and cherishing a quiet apathy to hu- 
man wants and woes. Through its mighty force, 
earth's fascinations blind the eye to the attractive- 
ness of God's service ; the cares of life oppress, the 
deceitfulness of riches betrays, the pomps of the 
world beguile, and the misanthropy of the multitude 
disheartens him, — till he exclaims, " O wretched 
man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body 
of this death." If his heart sometimes awakes, yet 
through physical infirmity his affections soon lan- 
guish ; if holy resolutions are formed in his happier 
moments, yet the anxieties attendant on earthly re- 
lationships drive them back into forgetfulness ; if 
sentiments of fraternal confidence are religiously 
cherished toward the faithful in Christ Jesus, yet 
they are often nullified by the suspicions and jeal- 
ousies engendered in the womb of denominational 
distinction ; if purposes of self-consecration to 
Christ and the church are solemnly formed, yet they 
do not preclude prejudice and contention or insig- 
nificant questions of policy, as strong as that which 
arose between Paul and Barnabas. And surely, 
when the friends of Christ cease to pray and labor 
together, through the influence of discordant views 
on the subject of rites and ceremonies, — when they 



15 



tithe the mint, the annise, and the cummin, and 
neglect the cultivation of faith, hope and charity, 
the weightier matters of the law, they betray an 
obliquity of heart or judgment, which creates a for- 
midable difficulty to the progress of truth to its final 
triumph. And yet, the difficulty is of wide extent 
throughout the Christian world, prevailing propor- 
tionably as the elements of corruption within re- 
main unsubdued, and the love of ease, or thirst for 
accumulation, or aspirations for distinction, or pride 
of opinion, or obstinacy of prejudice, or narrowness 
of vision, triumph over the meek and self-denying 
spirit of Christ. 

2. Another difficulty presents itself, in the deep 
debasement of those, whose spiritual benefit is con- 
templated. 

Ignorant of God and his law, as well as of their 
own, and the moral character of the world, — content 
with mental inactivity, and indifferent to moral ele- 
vation, — untaught in the principles of science, and 
fast bound in errors venerated for their antiquity, — 
vicious in their habits, and absorbed in sensual in- 
dulgences, — accustomed to the profane rites of re- 
ligions glittering yet grovelling, and degrading yet 
commanding and terrible, — they are unprepared to 
listen to the annunciation of Glory to God in the 
highest, and to appreciate the Gospel, as proclaim- 
ing deliverance from the dominion of sin and death. 
They are strange things which are thus brought to 
their ears by men of other lands and a purer faith, 
claiming the authority of that unknown God, — 

" From whom departing, they are lost, and rove 
At random, without honor, hope or peace ;" 



16 



and often their thoughts are not to be turned by any 
amount of testimony or argument from their deep- 
worn channels, nor their affections diverted from 
objects of their earliest and devoutest worship. 
The stupidity of the Hottentot, the sensuality of 
the Hindoo, the prejudice of the Mohammedan, the 
ancestral pride of the self-styled " Son of heaven," 
and the sottishness of the South-Sea Islander, alike 
interpose a wall high as heaven between the Chris- 
tian teacher and the child of ignorance — a wall that 
shall one day sink like the battlements of Jericho at 
God's presence, but can never be overthrown by 
combinations of human skill and power alone. 

It is too late in the day to indulge the fancies of 
some good men even — that by the sound of the 
hammer and the saw, pagans may be allured to sit 
patiently under the shade of their bread-fruit trees, 
and listen to the tidings of salvation ; — that their 
religious prejudices so much run in the current of 
divine revelation, as to predispose them to receive the 
humbling doctrines of the Gospel ; — that from the 
king on the throne to the infant of a year old, they 
are ready to throng Christian schools, and attend 
the worship of Jehovah ; — and that their generosity 
to each other, their bounty and liberality to stran- 
gers, their care of their children, their filial rever- 
ence, their honesty and fidelity, their truthfulness 
and tender mercies, are unequalled. Such dreams 
have been indulged, with a confidence due only to 
holy verities, in regard to some heathen tribes if not 
all, — I hardly need say, to the mortification of the 
dreamers, and the disappointment of Zion's too san- 



17 



guine friends. But Paul has described the heathen 
every- where, not more graphically than truthfully. 
He deals not in fiction, when he portrays them as 
vain in their imaginations, given up to uncleanness, 
worshiping the creature more than the Creator, full 
of envy, murder, debate, deceit, and malignity. 
Long and sad experience declares that infernal pas- 
sions dwell in Pagan bosoms, triumphing over even 
the great law of self-preservation, dealing out death 
and destruction to parents and children, driving on 
wars and fightings for purposes of rapine and plun- 
der, shedding the blood of acknowledged benefac- 
tors for gain, and devouring enemies with the re- 
morseless fierceness of the tiger or anaconda ; — and 
all this, in the presence of their gods, and in avowed 
obedience to their behests. Essentially true is this 
of the entire pagan world. Alienation from God, 
leading to deliberate revolt from every shadow of 
his authority, forms the all-pervading feature of its 
character, and renders its aspects toward man as 
well as God, " evil, only evil, and that continually." 
" There is none that doeth good, no, not one." 
Estimate then, if you can, the magnitude of this 
difficulty ! 

3. Another difficulty arises from the local circum- 
stances of large portions of the heathen world. 

Climes inhospitable as those of Greenland and 
Labrador, or of Western Africa, Malaysia, and other 
equinoctial lands, where either the rigors of perpet- 
ual winter or the rays of a vertical sun combine with 
ice-clad rocks or miasmatic marshes to annihilate 
the ever-decaying energies of man, present fearfully 

3 



18. 



appalling obstacles to missionary enterprise. Large 
sacrifices of life must be heroically made, and still 
larger sacrifices of the conveniences and comforts of 
civilized society ; health, ease and abundance must 
be freely exchanged for sickness, toil and penury ; 
association with refined and congenial minds, must 
be relinquished for companionship with the vulgar 
and the rude, the indolent and the filthy ; the 
dwarfish Esquimaux and the treacherous Caffre, the 
bronzed savage of the American wilds, and the 
dark-hued child of African deserts, must be taken 
affectionately by the hand and led to the cross, as 
equally the heirs of immortality, and equally suscep- 
tible of cleansing by the blood of Atonement, as 
the most favored of the sons of earth. And whether 
it be Hans Egede or Vanderkemp, Brainerd or 
Mills, Hall or Newell, Lyman or Lowrie, they must 
brave dangers and plunge into deaths oft, with none 
but the eye of the Invisible to see, and none but 
the arm of the Eternal to sustain them, in those 
fields of labor where biting frosts, or deadly malaria, 
or the passions of fiends in human form, maintain 
unquestioned dominion. 

And when to all this is added, the common work 
of the missionary in every land — the labor of 
accommodating habits of thought to the circum- 
stances of the narrow-minded and sensual, without 
diminishing the mind's energy — of acquiring new 
and unwritten languages, transferring them to the 
printed page, and instructing the undisciplined in 
the simplest rudiments of useful knowledge, and in 
the abstruse elements of science ; — thus subduing 



. 19 

at once ignorance, indolence, pride and self-conceit, 
inciting a thirst for intellectual progress ; and above 
all, inspiring the high resolve to abandon each vile 
superstition, and arise and go to Jesus, crying, 
" Lord ! save, or I perish " — and then reflect, that 
every land under heaven, however inhospitable and 
forbidding, is embraced in the great commission — 
we cannot evade the conviction, that difficulties 
thickly crowd the path of the self-devoted mis- 
sionary. 

4. Still another difficulty springs from the too 
prevalent scepticism of Christendom on the question 
of duty to the heathen. 

Avowed infidelity on this subject is unpopular ; 
and high encomiums are often lavished on the disin- 
terested and adventurous spirit, that breaks away 
from the endearments of home, and the attractions 
of civilized life, to carry the tidings of salvation to 
the ends of the earth. Still, in many quarters, 
there is felt an ill-disguised contempt for the reputed 
fanaticism that prompts to self-sacrifice for such an 
object ; for the controlling motives of the mission- 
ary are not comprehended, the moral condition of 
the world is not justly understood, nor is the author- 
ity of the King of Zion cordially acknowledged. 
And hence, the stale objections of other years, 
though thoroughly disproved in the providence of 
God, still exert a wide and deadly though unac- 
knowledged influence ; and whether declared or 
not, it is surmised that the missionary enterprise is 
impracticable, without the miraculous interposition 
of Heaven — that little has been accomplished, even 



20 



at the cost of large expenditures — that civilization 
must precede the introduction of a heaven-born sys- 
tem of faith and morals — that the heathen world is 
more virtuous and happy in its ignorance and bar- 
barism than is commonly believed — that we have 
heathen enough at home, to call into action all our 
sympathies and charities — that we have not at 
command sufficient means to give the Gospel to all 
nations— that the church must cease her own con- 
tentions, throw aside her superstitions, and cultivate 
a more fraternal spirit among her sons and daugh- 
ters, ere she assume to bear the olive branch over a 
contending world — and, that " the time has not 
come" to rear the temple of the Lord amid the hill- 
tops of idolatry. 

These are either facts or fictions. But, that they 
are not facts, is susceptible of the clearest proof from 
history, experience and prophecy. And if they are 
fictions, they indicate only a godless scepticism, pro- 
portioned to their prevalence. But that this scepti- 
cism is broadly diffused among " the children of this 
world," and over Christendom, — that it operates 
powerfully to paralyze the energies of the church, 
— that it leads to the withholding of co-operation in 
well-concerted plans of benevolent effort, and even 
arouses a stern resistance to the claims of oppressed 
humanity, — and, that it involves regardlessness of 
the soul's worth, of the value of Jesus' blood, and 
the regenerating influences of the Holy Spirit, will 
not be questioned by the true-hearted observer ; nor 
will the moral atmosphere thus surrounding the liv- 
ing Christian, depressing his holiest affections, en- 



21 



feebling his highest resolves, and tempting him to 
the neglect of his plainest duties, be less dreaded 
when perceived, nor less anxiously shunned, than 
the sirocco of the desert, or the miasma of Acheron, 
by the health-seeking traveler. 

5. Another difficulty arises from the character of 
the intercourse maintained between nominal Chris- 
tendom and the heathen nations. 

The larger portions of the unevangelized world 
make their first acquaintance with Christianity 
through men as far removed from its spirit, as those 
who have never heard of Christ. The cupidity and 
fraud, the licentiousness and violence of many com- 
mercial men and their agents, released from the re- 
straints of Christian association, and tempted by 
example and opportunity to the indulgence of their 
ruling passions, are as familiarly known, as they are 
deserving of abhorrence. The brandy of France, 
and the rum of New England, the opium of British 
India, and the cannon of European navies, combined 
with the intemperance and debauchery, profaneness 
and falsehood of foreigners thrown into the ports, 
and resident in the cities of the dark-minded idolater, 
foster the vicious propensities of his untutored na- 
ture, plunge him deeper in pollution, than if left to 
the unmixed inlluences of his own debased religion, 
and increase his repugnance to a Faith that promises 
no improvement either to his social or moral con- 
dition. 

But the most subtle and pernicious intercourse 
with heathen communities is maintained by men 
who claim to act under Heaven's commission, but 



22 



" whose coming is after the working of Satan — with 
all deceiveableness of unrighteousness ; " men, who, 
like the priests of Jeroboam and the disciples of 
Loyola, blend in unholy union the rites of Pagan and 
Christian worship, transferring the honors of Jeho- 
vah to Baal or Brama, and exchanging the sim- 
plicity of Christ, for the imposing magnificence of 
an idol temple. Schwartz and Gerricke in India, 
Hocker and Rueffer in Persia and Abyssinia, and 
others of like spirit in South America and the 
Islands of the sea, encounter an opposition more 
fierce and obstinate from these " false Apostles," 
than from the priests and devotees of the most bloody 
and obscene superstitions. The thousands of bap- 
tized Pagans gathered into churches, whether by the 
minions of the Romish See, for the glorification of 
Mary and the aggrandizement of the Papacy — or, 
by the armed missionaries of Protestant govern- 
ments, for the consolidation of their power and in- 
crease of their revenues, — whether persuaded to 
repeat their Ave Marias and Pater Nosters in con- 
nection with their prostrations and lascivious dances 
before the shrines of idols, or compelled by force of 
arms to repeat the Lord's Prayer and the Ten Com- 
mandments within a Christian temple, are not only 
heathens still, but are more thoroughly fortified 
against the legitimate influences of the Gospel, than 
their former brethren in ignorance ; pure Paganism, 
corrupt and destructive as it is to the soul, yields 
more readily to the claims of evangelical Christian- 
ity, than Paganism baptized into the name of Father, 
Son, and Holy Ghost. 



23 



Such are some of the difficulties that impede the 
onward movement of the missionary enterprise ; diffi- 
culties to be overcome by the church, only when she 
shall be found " steadfast, immoveable, and always 
abounding in the work of the Lord." And, it is 
due to truth to say, that they are rather imposing in 
their aspects, than substantial in their character , 
for were they accumulated an hundred fold and mag- 
nified into impossibilities in our eye, we might still 
say to them, either severally or collectively, " What 
art thou, O great mountain, before Zerubbabel ! " 
At the touch of God's finger they vanish, and before 
the breath of his nostrils, they are as the chaff of the 
summer threshing-floor before the whirlwind ; with 
God, all things are equally possible, as the deliver- 
ance of Noah from the deluge, of Daniel from the 
lion's den, and of Paul from the prison of Philippi. 
" Prayer, pains, and perseverance," with his blessing, 
" accomplish all things." 

And if the soldier braves the dangers of the land 
and the sea, of the battle-field and the prison-house 
in defence of his country, or for the glory of his rul- 
ers, — if the mariner dares the fury of the elements 
and the fierce passions of savage men, for the fame 
of discovery, or the gains of commerce, — and if the 
merchant encounters the perils of unknown seas, 
insalubrious climes and hostile governments, for the 
increase of wealth and of luxury, — shall the follower 
of Christ succumb to the pressure of no more than 
equal dangers, and forego the rapturous " Euge " 
from the lips of Christ, " Well done ! good and 
faithful servant," when assured that the everlasting 



24 



arms are underneath him, and that the gates of hell 
shall never prevail against him ! 

This leads us to the third topic suggested for con- 
sideration, viz. 

III. The promised reward, " Your labor shall not 
be in vain in the Lord." 

The work of missions is the Lord's work, con- 
ducted on the broadest scale. If he that converteth 
one sinner from the error of his way hideth a multi- 
tude of sins, and creates joy among the angels — 
who shall calculate the blessings conferred on earth 
and heaven, by the man who throws himself with 
all his affections and energies, into the work of the 
world's conversion ! And, if every man shall receive 
at the hand of the Lord according to that he hath 
done, whether it be good or bad, then the individual 
and the church thus self-devoted, and abounding in 
the work of missions, shall receive abundant grace 
and glory. 

Labor for God ever brings its own reward. Such 
is the divine constitution, to be recognized on earth 
as in heaven. God's blessedness consists in Love, 
ever outflowing in beneficent action. Angelic hap- 
piness springs from ceaseless activity in minis- 
tering to them who are the heirs of salvation. And 
obedience to the same law of love ensures to man 
the consciousness of acceptance with God, and fel- 
lowship with the spirits about the throne. 

But, the Apostle addresses the church collectively, 
and assures her that her labor for the conversion of 
men to the faith of Jesus, shall not be in vain, and 



25 



that in her embodiment, as the visible representative 
of Christ, she shall receive a reward proportioned to 
her fidelity. 

Thus warranted to apply the promise to the church 
in all her generations, I say, 

]. That Christendom reaps the reward, in the 
reflex influence of the missionary enterprise on her- 
self. , 

She glories justly in the superiority of her lit- 
erature and science ; but never since the world be- 
gan have they advanced so rapidly and shone so 
splendidly, as since the commencement of modern 
missions. The researches of Buchanan in India, 
and of Jovvett in Turkey, — the labors of Fisk and 
Parsons in Palestine and Syria, of Martyn in Hin- 
doostan and Persia, of Morrison, Milne, and Gutzlaff 
in China, and the explorations of an hundred others 
of the same spirit among the spice-bearing isles of 
the Southern ocean, or the snow-clad forests of the 
North, the wilds of our own continent, or the burn- 
ing sands of Africa, — have poured floods of light on 
the natural history of the world, the physical and 
intellectual resources of man, the geographical limits 
of nations and their relative strength, their customs 
and habits, their languages and modes of thought, 
their comforts and privations — matters of high prac- 
tical utility, with all who would judge correctly of 
the capabilities of the race, and of the best means 
for its improvement. 

Her commercial relations have extended propor- 
tionally to her advanced literature and science, and 
the productions of nations widely separated from her 



26 



by intervening oceans, are easily and profitably pro- 
cured. If the manufactures of our country find 
their way to Africa and China, to the Sandwich 
Islands and India, in increasing abundance, and pro- 
duce correspondingly remunerative returns, it is 
because the herald of salvation has gone thither, 
seeking the welfare of the people, changing their 
habits of life, breaking down their prejudices, and 
creating a demand for comforts and wealth before 
unknown. 

So, wherever these men of God have gone, they 
have inspired respect for the lives and property of 
strangers ; — disarmed the barbarian of his spear and 
poisoned arrows — warmed his bosom with compas- 
sion for the sick and ship-wrecked mariner — and 
constrained him to divide his last morsel with the 
famished traveler, and speed him on his way. 
Thousands in Christian lands have thus been saved 
the sorrows of widowhood and orphanage, penury, 
and living death, by the direct influence of mission- 
ary establishments : they are so many strong towers 
into which the distressed run and are safe — so many 
asylums where the wretched find consolation, the 
sick obtain healing, and the dying, angelic support. 
Hence, the earnest inquiry of the sailor, thrown by 
the violence of the waves on an unknown land — 
" Is the Christian missionary here ? " — no sooner 
meets an affirmative response, than his fears vanish, 
— he " thanks God and takes courage." 

These, however, and others like them, are but 
the smaller rewards following the discharge of duty, 



27 



and unworthy to be compared with those that per- 
tain to " life and immortality." 

Of these, however, it must suffice to say — that 
individual and social piety, depending for its vitality 
and power on the comprehensive views taken of 
God and the principles of his government, in con- 
nection with man's duty to a revolted world, cannot 
be vigorously sustained, except by diffusion ; and 
that the indispensable condition ou which rests 
growth in grace and a harvest of future glory, is ac- 
tive devotedness to the work of universal regen- 
eration. The mind is enlivened, the affections are 
elevated and refined, and the comforts of the Holy 
Ghost are multiplied, in proportion as the demands 
on beneficent action are promptly and generously 
met. 

And, looking for the origin of Bible Associations, 
Tract and Education Societies, Sabbath Schools, 
Temperance movements, and a thousand other 
appliances for the elevation of the intellectual and 
moral character of Christendom, we shall find it in 
those enlarged views of religious obligation inspired 
of Heaven, and giving birth to the foreign mission- 
ary enterprise more than a hundred years ago, and 
then stimulating and strengthening those home mis- 
sionary operations that give no equivocal promise of 
making our own, the glory of all lands. 

Or, if revivals of religion multiply, and long 
standing churches renew their youth, and infant 
churches rise to early manhood, and healthful disci- 
pline vindicates their purity, and zeal for the pro- 
gress of truth and love imparts to them the splendor 



28 



of the sun, the beauty of the moon, and the terri- 
bleness of an army with banners, — if denomina- 
tional divisions and strifes vanish, and Christians of 
differing names rush into the embraces of a holier 
fellowship, to the confusion of gainsayers, — it is 
because the paramount claims of the Lord's work of 
missions are admitted, and the carnal, self-aggran- 
dizing policy of darker times discarded. 

So the Bible derives new confirmations of its 
divine authority, from the severe tests applied to it 
in the progress of its translation into the various 
languages of men, and from corroborative facts, 
gathered up from all portions of the earth, illustra- 
tive of its history, its doctrines, and its prophecies, 
and thus opposes an invincible antagonism to ram- 
pant infidelity ; while at the same time, the strength 
of error in all its Protean forms is weakened, and 
its hopes extinguished, through the rapid accumula- 
tion of such proof of Truth's divinity, as missionary 
investigation is ever bringing to the light. 

And then, the noblest specimens of humanity that 
have ever met the eyes of men or angels, are found 
on the field of Foreign Missions. Devotion to the 
world's welfare and moral heroism have never shone 
in men elevated to thrones of power, or leading on 
armies to conquest and renown, as in the Eliots 
and Brainerds, the Careys and Marshmans, the Med- 
hursts and Abeels of missionary fame. And if the 
mind that conceives and the hand that executes the 
noblest purposes, be the main constituents of moral 
greatness, then does greatness belong not less really 
to Fuller and Bogue, Worcester and Evarts, than to 



29 



Luther and Calvin, or Peter and Paul. These are 
the men, who, with their compeers in labor, and 
under the direction of the Holy One, bring light 
out of darkness and order out of confusion, — who 
supplant barbarism by civilization, superstition by 
simple faith, servitude by rational liberty, and ex- 
tinguish the fires of licentiousness by the waters of 
the river of life, and silence the shrill clarion of war, 
by the deep-toned harp of heaven ! 

2. Christendom reaps a still greater reward, in the 
success of her labors abroad. 

Of this success we have the strongest assurance 
in the promises of God. These promises are not 
only " Yea and Amen, in Christ Jesus," but intelli- 
gible in their announcement, and unmistakable in 
their appropriation. 

" In the last days, the mountain of the Lord's 
house shall be established in the top of the moun- 
tains, and shall be exalted above the hills, and all 
nations shall flow unto it." 

" All the ends of the earth shall remember and 
turn unto the Lord, and all the kindreds of the na- 
tions shall worship before him." 

" They shall teach no more every man his neigh- 
bor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the 
Lord, for they shall all know him, from the least of 
them to the greatest." 

" Every valley shall be exalted, and every moun- 
tain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked 
shall be made straight, and the rough places plain, 
and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all 
flesh shall see it together." 



30 



" According to his promise, we look for new 
heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth right- 
eousness ;" " the Gospel of the kingdom shall be 
preached in all the world, for a witness unto all na- 
tions ; " and " in that day, there shall be one Lord, 
and his name one." 

Such are the assurances of " the Lord of heaven 
and earth." Idolatry, the abominable thing that 
he hates, shall perish from under these heavens, 
and the temples of Jehovah shall rise on the 
ruins of effete superstitions ; the divinely estab- 
lished relationships of life shall be every where 
recognized, and the face of society changed ; every 
yoke shall be broken, and whatsoever men would 
that others should do to them, that they shall do to 
others ; 

" All crimes shall cease, and ancient frauds shall fail ; " 

the trial of bonds and imprisonments, of cruel mock- 
ings and scourgings, shall be known no more ; the 
spear and the rack, the dungeons of the inquisition 
and the flames of the auto-da-fe, the morais of the 
Pagan, and the scimetar of the Mohammedan, shall 
be remembered but as the fitful dreams of a mad- 
dened world, slumbering through a long and dismal 
night. Pride and envy, with their kindred passions, 
shall die out of human hearts, and devotion to the 
interests of humanity and the glory of God shall 
succeed them. The rulers of the world shall fear 
God and work righteousness ; the kings of Tarshish 
and of the isles, the kings of Sheba and Seba shall 
offer gifts ; yea, all kings shall fall down before him, 



31 



and sacrifice their wisdom and power, their wealth 
and honors on his altars ; and then the blood-thirsty 
Dyak and the wary Siamese, the haughty Turk and 
deceitful Greek, the polished European and the 
groveling African, the diminutive child of the Arc- 
tic, and the stalwart Patagonian, shall assimilate and 
love as brethren, 

" Nor sigh nor murmur, the wide world shall hear." 

Such are the results certain to flow in upon the 
church when " abounding in the work of the Lord." 

Other demonstration of " the exceeding greatness 
of power " is not demanded for the completion of 
the great work in progress, than that which shall 
turn the undivided attention of the Christian world, 
to the single object for which the material universe 
stands. Let the church emulate the fortitude and 
zeal of Christ and his Apostles, and pour her prayers 
and tears, her alms and labors into the treasury of 
the Lord, with the freeness and fullness of primitive 
ages, and her confidence in the promises of God 
will gather fresh strength with each revolving year ; 
but she needs more than the' resolution of the mon- 
arch who said, " I'll have it known that my flag can 
protect a paroquet ; " even the nobler heroism of the 
man who in view of bonds and afflictions, exclaimed, 
" None of these things move me ; I take pleasure in 
infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecu- 
tions, in distresses for Christ's sake ; when I am 
weak, then am I strong." 

Though the world shall be converted to God, as 
certainly as " he is not a man that he should lie, nor 



32 



the son of man that he should repent," yet it is 
a progressive work, requiring not only firmness and 
heroism, but practical wisdom for its completion. 
The most promising fields of labor are to be first 
selected, as well as the fittest means for their culti- 
vation. The soul of man, if every where equally 
precious, is not every where equally accessible. 
Though we honor the spirit that lavished sixty years 
of unavailing toil on the wandering Calmucs of 
Tartary, and sought to penetrate the interior of 
Persia in quest of a few doubtful descendants of the 
Magi, and hazarded life to recover the Mohammedan- 
oppressed Copts and Abyssinians from their degrad- 
ing superstitions, and dared the frozen regions of 
Labrador, and defied the arrows of death, flying 
thickly among the Sunderbunds of Hindoostan ; yet 
the policy is more than questionable, that overlooks 
at the same time, the equally urgent claims of more 
salubrious portions of the earth, less burdened with 
ignorance and superstition. If some fields are more 
white to the harvest than others, they demand the first 
attention of the husbandman ; nor are they the fields 
where cockle and darnel most luxuriantly grow, nor 
where the fiercest beasts of prey make their haunts ; 
but a wise economy of compassion and toil forbid 
the waste of energy and life where unpropitious cir- 
cumstances crowd out the hope of early success, 
when localities are open which promise quick and 
large returns for every expenditure of pious labor. 

Missionary enterprises are liable to temporary 
failure, too, not only through deficiency of wisdom 
in their conductors, but through the inadequacy of 



33 



support derived from the sympathies, prayers, and 
pecuniary contributions of the churches. So the 
health of the missionary may fail, and his heart be 
overborne by discouragement ; or the calamities of 
war, pestilence, and famine may overflow his field 
of labor ; and after years of alternating hope and 
fear, he may retire from his post with the lamenta- 
tion of the Prophet on his lips, — " I have labored 
in vain, I have spent my strength for naught and in 
vain." Still, 

" Though seed lie buried long in dust, 
It sha'nt deceive our hope." 

Egede may mourn over the disappointed hopes of fif- 
teen years' arduous toil, though seven years of super- 
added labor, by other men, brings to light the germi- 
nating principle of the seed sown, and results in a 
glorious harvest. Schmidt may abandon Africa after 
seven years of apostolic effort, believing that he has 
accomplished nothing ; but fifty years afterwards, he 
is remembered there, by one, whom he led to Jesus 
in her childhood, and who loves the shade of the 
pear-tree planted by her teacher's hand, and whose 
faith and love stay up the hands of a new and more 
successful missionary band. No! the Gospel cannot 
be preached in its simplicity in vain, whether among 
the hills of Palestine, the ruins of Nineveh, the fast- 
nesses of Koordistan, the jungles of Burmah, the 
mosques of Arabia, or the temples of China. As 
certainly as the salvation of God is sent unto the 
Gentiles, they will hear it, and sooner or later exult 
in hope, and glorify God. Busy as earth's millions 
are to-day, in their pursuits of gain and self-indul- 



34 



gence, — vainly sanguine as they are in their expect- 
ations, and reckless of responsibility to God, and of 
the retributions of eternity, yet when the voice of 
Love shall reach them from the throne, through the 
abounding labors of the church, they shall be ar- 
rested in their wild career, nations shall be born in 
a day, the deathless interests of myriads shall be 
secured, the joys of the church triumphant shall be 
multiplied, and new glories shall gather around the 
head of Emanuel. God's word and providence, the 
power of his truth and the omnipotence of his Spirit, 
together declare it. 

You will permit me, in conclusion, to suggest 
three 

REFLECTIONS. 

1. The elements of success in the missionary en- 
terprise are few and simple. 

Among these, are the love of God shed abroad in 
the heart by the Holy Ghost, especially as he ap- 
pears in Christ, reconciling the world to himself. 
When Christ and his cross fill the eye of the church, 
and he becomes to her "as a bundle of myrrh, or 
a cluster of camphor in the vineyards of Engedi," 
she is constrained to declare his loveliness to the 
world, and conjure all nations to fall down and wor- 
ship him. 

Then, there enters into the spirit of missions, a 
just appreciation of the worth of the soul, — of the 
dangers that crowd its pathway to another world, — 
of its possible salvation through the blood of the 
God-man, and of its inevitable destiny to weal or 
wo, agreeably to the image here impressed on it. 



35 



Then, the actual condition of the heathen world 
— its spiritual wants and miseries — its cherished 
reasonings on man's relations to God and eternity — 
its idolatries and vices, with the social and moral 
habits fostered by its false religions, — will be investi- 
gated and deplored by every man who has the mind 
that was in Christ. 

Then, are the heathen to be met with all those 
appliances of wisdom and kindness, that are appro- 
propriate to the conversion of the ungodly in en- 
lightened lands — by the rudimental and more ad- 
vanced processes of education — by instruction in 
science and intellectual discipline, in agriculture and 
the mechanic arts, in connection with the clear 
announcements of evangelical truth, whether in the 
school-room or on the highway, in the house of God 
or at the gate of the idol's temple. Knowledge is 
the mother of devotion, and kindness is the hand- 
maid of knowledge. Ignorant zeal may multiply 
gilded crosses, forced baptisms and imaginary con- 
versions ; but the barbarities of men like Magellan 
and Balboa, can never be converted into instru- 
ments of good, nor can oceans wash away the guilt 
of leaving immortal mind under the oppression of 
darkness, when " godliness has the promise of the 
life that now is, and of that which is to come." 

And, when the pagan is brought to the knowl- 
edge of the truth, by this various and patient labor, 
his faith is to be strengthened by watchfulness and 
forbearance. As the unfledged dovelet has not the 
sweet note and comely plumage of the parent bird, 
nor the infant child the vigor and fortitude of the 



36 



full-grown man, so the new convert from paganism 
is deficient in the intelligence and meek firmness of 
the well-instructed and mature disciple. The same 
consistency of character and elevation of purpose 
cannot be anticipated in the recently enlightened 
heathen, as in the man taught from infancy in the 
oracles of God. The moral atmosphere in which 
the one has ever had his being, as little resembles 
the moral atmosphere of the other, as the pesti- 
lential breathings of the moss-green swamp resem- 
ble the pure breezes that fan the mountain top. 
Kairnak and Africaner, Duaterra and Romatone, 
though signal trophies of grace, are not invul- 
nerable to shafts hurled by the mighty Prince of 
Evil ; for neither Prophet nor Apostle, with their 
broader and thicker shields, were safe from such 
assaults ; and, if converts from heathenism back- 
slide even by hundreds, it is but a repetition of the 
fact that made the tears of the Apostles flow, and 
excited their increased diligence and watchfulness ; 
for beside the deceitfulness of the heart and the 
carnality common to all men, the deep ignorance of 
the heathen, the abjectness of their social condi- 
tion, their vain but venerated traditions, their time- 
honored customs of profligacy, impelling to infanti- 
cide, parricide, Thuggish murders, and cannibalism 
— all conflict steadily with the holiest efforts to 
transform them into symmetrical Christians. But 
in proportion as light increases, through the multi- 
plication of schools and colleges, the elevation of 
the female mind, the establishment of churches and 
exercise of salutary discipline, the instructions of 



37 



native preachers, the translation and distribution of 
the Scriptures, and the diffusion of all useful 
knowledge, — the standard of Christian character 
will rise, and the attainments of true disciples will 
become more commensurate with the requisitions of 
the Bible. 

The love of God and joy in the great salvation, a 
due estimate of the soul's value and the actual con- 
dition of the heathen world, wisdom in counsel, and 
affectionate desires, combined with various and pa- 
tient labor, form then the main elements of success 
in the missionary enterprise. 

2. Personal consecration to this work is demand- 
ed of every believer. 

The duty of each member is identical in its 
nature and claims, with the duty of the entire body 
of Christ. If prayer, labor, and sacrifice are neces- 
sary to the world's conversion, they are equally de- 
manded of one and all who acknowledge Jesus as 
their Lord and Master. When the spirit that 
prompted the whole body of Moravian brethren to 
resolve, individually as well as collectively, to fulfil 
the Savior's commission, in face of poverty and 
contempt, and impelled sixty-six of their number 
within thirty years to lay down their lives for the 
spiritual redemption of slaves, and other scores to 
press toward the same sacrificial altar, and sustained 
Zeisberger and Heinrich in the endurance of jeal- 
ousy and suspicion, violence and death, for the 
recovery of wandering savages to the love of God — 
shall pervade the church at large, and illustrate be- 



38 



fore the world the union of confidence in God and 
personal consecration, then shall be seen 

" New heavens, new earth, ages of endless date 
Founded in righteousnsss, and peace and love 
To bring forth fruits, joy and eternal bliss." 

This personal consecration, beyond all things else, is 
needed now ; and whether it appear in the form of 
fervent and effectual prayer, flowing from the heart 
of the "unknowing and unknown" believer ; or, of 
the self-denial that prompts the rich man to bestow 
his thousands, and the poor widow her two mites, 
and the talented youth to devote his entire life and 
influence to the world's regeneration — it is all the 
same ; humanity claims it, God demands it, glory, 
honor and immortality reward it. A few recognize 
the duty, others halt between two opinions, but an 
immense majority say, " I pray thee have me ex- 
cused." 

I once knew — and all of you have often heard 
of — the little band of college youth, whose prayers 
and deliberations among the hills of Berkshire, and 
in the sweet seclusion of Andover, gave birth to the 
most splendid enterprise that gilds the heaven- 
written pages of our country's history — and whose 
was the spirit of entire consecration to the sole ob- 
ject of making known the Savior's name, through- 
out the world. The bold and energetic piety of 
Hall, the meek and quiet devotion of Richards, the 
far-reaching eye and deep-feeling heart of Mills, 
and the mingling confidence and tears of their few 
companions, were but living characteristics of the 
spirit that animates every disciple of Jesus, entering 



39 



successfully into the work of the Lord ; and it is 
a spirit that can never die, while the promises of 
God stand firmer than the everlasting hills, though 
even now it confessedly languishes, and leaves 
to weak faith a large inheritance of doubts and 
fears ; but, it shall revive again, and urge onward 
thousands among successive generations to deeds of 
noble daring on the broad field of conflict between 
Michael the Prince, and the Devil and his angels. 
The young men of our colleges and higher semina- 
ries shall again catch the fire that burned so brightly 
on their altars a few years since ; and other young 
men and maidens, old men and children, shall en- 
courage their aspirations, praise the name of the 
Lord, and partake of the rewards of the wise, who 
turn many to righteousness ; and when it is said of 
the fathers still living, as of those now dead, 
" Where are they ? " — their mantles will have fallen 
upon their children, who shall arise to perfect " the 
work of the Lord," and exult in the world's re- 
demption from sin's dominion. 

3. " The time has come " for the house of the 
Lord to be enlarged into a dwelling place of all 
nations. 

So the signs of the times declare. The world is 
thrown open to the eye of Christendom as never 
before. The facilities of intercommunication be- 
tween evangelized and unevangelized lands are not 
only increased, but well-nigh perfected ; so that, 
indirectly, the influence of Christianity already per- 
meates the earth, through the extending sway of 



40 



Christian governments, which, by whatever motives 
actuated, guarantee protection to men of every lan- 
guage who shall either declare or receive the words 
of eternal life. Then, the commercial spirit of the 
age, combined with governmental enterprise, and 
" bringing to light the hidden things of darkness," 
is multiplying and strengthening the ligaments that 
bind in harmony the interests of the antipodes, and 
at the same time extends, wherever it goes, a por- 
tion of the moral influence pervading Christian 
lands. Science, too, extends her boundaries, and 
not only, like her Author, " weighs the mountains 
in scales, and the hills in a balance," and compre- 
hends the adjustments of creative wisdom through- 
out the broad expanse of the solar system, — but 
condescends to the humbler task of exploding the 
absurd theories that have long cramped the intellect 
of India ; dispelling the ignorance that with incubus 
effect has settled down upon the bosom of Africa ; 
dissipating the airy fancies of " the Celestials " ; 
extinguishing the bloody orgies of demons incar- 
nate, and turning into shame " the wisdom of the 
wise, and the understanding of the prudent." 

Beyond and better than all this — the church her- 
self goes forth in the strength of the Lord, to 
" preach good tidings to the meek, to bind up the 
broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, 
to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and 
the day of vengeance of our God ; " her voice is 
already heard, though faintly, in the most distant 
lands, and among the most barbarous nations ; at 
her approach darkness recedes, and the " True 



41 

Light " shines with increasing splendor ; behind 
her, the desert has already become a fruitful field, 
and the dry land, springs of water ; at her touch 
the svna°;o£ues of Satan are transformed into tern- 
pies of the living God, and worshipers of devils 
prostrate themselves in her presence before " the 
King eternal." 

Indeed, the church combines in her constitution 
the elements of indestructible vitality and irre- 
pressible energy. She outlives the most flourishing 
kingdoms of the world, and triumphs over their 
downfall. Egypt, famed for skill in science, arts 
and arms — Tyre, pre-eminent for commerce, opu- 
lence and strength — Assyrian Nineveh, the home of 
elegance, luxury and pride — Babylon, the Chaldees' 
excellency, mistress and arbiter of nations — all, like 
the Carthaginians and Romans, the Greeks and 
Saracens of later days, though they " caused their 
terror in the land of the living, have gone down to 
their graves, set in the sides of the pit, and there rest 
upon their swords," beneath the outstretched arm 
of Zion. And still she lives, to witness the over- 
throw of every antagonistic power, whether civil or 
ecclesiastical, Pagan or Mohammedan. Meek in 
her spirit, firm in her purpose, simple in her confi- 
dence and ever onward in her movements, neither 
marshaled armies, persecution's fires, philosophy's 
pretensions, nor Satan's stratagems, are aught but 
briars and thorns before the devouring flame ; from 
conquering she goes on to conquer, till all the 
crowns of earth are laid at Jesus' feet, when heaven 
pours forth the triumphal song — " The kingdoms of 

6 



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the world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, 
and of his Christ." 

"Fixed in the rolling flood of endless years 
The pillar of the eternal plan appears, 
The raving storm and dashing wave defies, 
Built by that Architect who built the skies." 

Scarce a single generation has passed away, since 
Zion's duty to the sin-enslaved nations began to be 
seriously discussed under the shade of the haystack, 
and within the walls of a seminary ; nor was it then 
the dream of the most sanguine, that at this hour, 
twelve hundred stations, wide apart as the East from 
the West, on heathen ground, would be occupied by 
three thousand missionaries and their assistants, — 
that native schools and colleges would be sending 
forth hundreds of educated heathen to spread the 
illumination of human and divine science over illim- 
itable tracts of darkness, — that the press would be 
scattering its myriads of healing leaves along the 
pathway of every herald of salvation, — that thirty 
millions of Bibles would be revealing the counsels 
of heaven to men in two hundred different lan- 
guages, — that heathen children by hundreds of 
thousands would be found on their way to Jesus for 
his blessing, — and that willing converts to Christ 
would be numbered by fifties of thousands. 

Less was this moral revolution contemplated, as 
lying in the purpose of Providence then, than the 
wondrous increase of our country's population and 
territory since, or, than the speed with which steam- 
ships traverse oceans, locomotives measure distances, 
and lightnings convey intelligence from land to land. 



43 



But God is accomplishing great things in his provi- 
dence among the kingdoms of the earth, in their 
domestic institutions and civil relations, scattering 
the proud in their imaginations, putting down kings 
from their thrones, making ' darkness his secret 
place, and his pavilion round about him dark waters 
and thick clouds of the sky,' drying up rivers, span- 
ning oceans, opening to the light the long-hid treas- 
ures of the earth, and preparing the way for the 
return of his ransomed ones to their rest by quickly 
successive revolutions in the political world, and by 
new and rapid developments of the laws and en- 
ergies of universal nature. 

Full of grandeur now, is the object before us, — 
to bring the world into subjection to Christ, diffusing 
peace and joy through all its habitations, — to defeat 
hell's dark designs, and restore a fallen race to 
Emanuel's arms, and then to fill heaven with rap- 
turous hosannas, by the union of all human voices 
with the multitudes about the throne, till as the 
voice of many waters, and the voice of mighty 
thunderings, they shall echo through the universe the 
joyous anthem, " Alleluia ! for the Lord God omnip- 
otent reigncth, — and the kingdom, and dominion, 
and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole 
heaven, are given to the people of the saints of the 
Most High." 

Thus, dear brethren, may we ever sacrifice self- 
indulgence to duty, surmount difficulty by steadfast- 
ness, make sure the promised reward by fidelity unto 
the death ; and then, weak and unworthy as we are, 
shall we rise to the holy city, the Jerusalem that is 



44 



above, and behold " the glory and the honor of all 
nations brought into it," and unite in the ascription 
of " Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be 
unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the 
Lamb, forever and ever." 




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